Launches, feuds, withdrawals, hi-tech gadgets and future predictions were just some of the highlights
David Shapshak
A week may be a long time in politics and it can also be a very busy time for the information technology industry.
Last week as Africa’s telecommunications came under the spotlight at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecoms Africa summit in Midrand, the third cellular operator, Cell C, launched its first services and Absa bank effectively withdrew its free Internet service. Telkom also announced new tariffs that were shot down by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) which accused it of misrepresenting its figures, sparking yet another public telecoms feud.
Additionally, chipmaker Intel map- ped out its vision of the Internet future, as well as how the architecture of its four lines of processors (two for computers and handheld devices, one each for next generation networks, and ISPs and enterprises) will aid future hardware development.
Those were just the local highlights. In America, all eyes were on Comdex, the annual hi-tech gadget show where future trends are revealed, including Microsoft chief Bill Gates’s enthusiastic display of the Tablet PC a pen-based, super hand-held platform running Windows XP that 10 hardware manufacturers announced they were working on.
Gates, who by the sheer marketing weight of the world’s largest software maker has a knack for not so much predicting as influencing new trends, was full of praise for the new, keyboard-less platform: “I’m already using a Tablet PC as my everyday computer. It’s a PC that is virtually without limits and within five years, I predict that it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America.”
But here in Africa the talk was all of Internet access, wireless technology, and cellphones and the rapid uptake of mobile networks that will circumvent the need for expensive fixed-line networks on our continent with its historically sparse telecoms infrastructure.
On display with a variety of flashy gadgets were hardware and software solutions to turn the mobile Internet into a reality. Essentially, the next global trend will see the cellular infrastructure evolving to become a data carrier instead of primarily being for voice communications. The roll call of big businesses involved in this are a who’s who of IT and telecoms, including Microsoft, Compaq, HP, Siemens, Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson.
The ITU dedicated its own pavilion to “connecting rural Africa technology and applications for rural development”.
It set up several working models of how technology can help with isolated rural areas, using a community access model. The telecentre a popular form of universal access kiosk which offers a range of functions like phone, Internet and e-mail access, and faxing, using satellite services, was demonstrated, as were ways of providing long-distance telemedicine, tele-health and tele-training.
“Rural areas have special characteristics which can hamper traditional telecommunications development,” says the union’s secretary general, Yoshio Utsumi. “These include the lack of reliable electricity supplies, the difficulty in providing normal wireless services and the huge distances between individual sparsely populated communities with generally low incomes.
“We therefore need to look at different ways of providing access in these areas. Fortunately the development of new technologies and the creation of applications and equipment geared towards the specific needs of developing rural areas will come to our aid in achieving this goal. Personally, I am more optimistic than ever because for the first time in history we are within reach of being able to close the development gap.”
It doesn’t rain, it pours
Where the ITU event in 1998 focused on wiring up Africa, and getting it on to the information superhighway, as the Internet was coyly known before the investment hype took over, this year’s conference was mostly zeroed in on wireless connectivity. Cellular networks and the vast advantages they offer over conventional terrestrial networks were extensively punted.
Compaq announced its “GSM in a box” solution that must be the world’s largest plug-and-play application; an all-in-one solution to run a mobile network with billing mechanism built in.
Satellite phones were in evidence as were numerous systems that utilise the super-fast data speeds made possible by an upgrade to existing GSM cellular networks known as GPRS, or general packet radio services.
Siemens demonstrated a GPRS system that monitors your home and lets you close or open blinds or any other electronically enabled thing in a future wired home. If there is an intruder, the system will send you a message, but knows not to “panic” if it’s just your cat. “It’s not possible yet to send video but it can send a picture,” said exhibitor Regis Miqueu.
Cell C rushes in
Cell C chose to launch itself as South Africa’s third cellular network with very competitive products aimed at leveraging itself into the prepaid market which makes up about 80% of the country’s users.
After being beset with difficulties and legal wrangling, Cell C says it took it just 21 weeks to get up and running. It switched on the network last Saturday with very aggressive pre-paid offerings that undercut MTN and Vodacom’s packages for the same market.
Under the Easy Chat brand, Cell C offers two options: Standard at R2,70/minute peak time (compared to R2,85 for the other operators) and R1,35 off peak; and All Day, which has a flat rate of R2. It also offers a “friends and family” discount of 10% for the two most commonly dialled numbers, which must be chosen.
What is interesting is that users can change these options and the two numbers at any time from their handsets. Obviously to seize this lucrative pre-paid market, the launch special is a R20 starter pack with a SIM card and R150 worth of calls.
Cell C claims to have lured about 50 000 prepaid users to its network in the first two days alone, and a total of 300 000 subscribers, including for the post-paid or contract market which will be announced at the end of the month.
Free Internet ditched
South Africa’s high-profile free Internet service, run by Absa, is effectively being closed to non-Absa clients.
Launched amid much scepticism about its financial viability earlier this year and after many European free services moved to a paying model, it sparked fierce public mud-slinging between Absa’s executive director Santie Botha and Antoine Roux, CEO of M-Web, the country’s largest ISP.
For Absa it has been a healthy investment, despite what fallout is sure to come its way.
At a cost of R67-million, Absa said it had allowed 56 000 new users access to the Internet for the first time. Absa saw its online banking client base leap by 67%, from 150 000 to 250 000, giving it 36% of that market. By comparison, virtual bank 20twenty, which also burst on to the scene this year, claimed 31 000 customers since launching at the end of July, albeit in a more tech-savvy market.
Absa’s online banking transactions almost doubled from R5,3-million a month in January to R9,5-million in October; while its transactions increased by 88%, from R3,3-billion to R6,2-billion, according to reported figures.
However, the bank said it did not want to become an ISP and could not sustain the costs any longer. M-Web, and the other major ISP, World- Online, will soon be laughing all the way to their banks if Absa’s non-clients do not open two accounts to stay with the service.
Slapped on the wrist
Telkom also announced new tariffs, but they were rejected by Icasa. This was partly because of a lack of regulation that defined the increases and partly as Icasa said Telkom misrepresented its figures.
The wrangle is due to Minister of Post, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri’s rejection last month of Icasa’s regulations proposal, which her critics say is another interference in the regulator’s domain and an attempt to shield Telkom from the impending competitor of the second national operator, which is due to be announced in March.
Telkom proposed increases of 7,2% for residential users and an average of 5,5%.
“In their proposed tariffs, Telkom will be increasing local calls by a massive 23,9% and not by 7,2% the composite figure released by Telkom,” Icasa said in a statement.
“Taking into account the fact that Internet access is charged at local call rates, the authority cannot understand how such an increase can help bridge the digital divide. Telkom is using the predicted level of CPI [consumer price index] for January 2002 instead of the more transparent actual CPI for September 2001.”
There was good news for large corporate data users, who will see a decrease, and a confirmation that the much-vaunted fast-speed home digital subscriber line (DSL) service will be launched next year. The popularity of this service soared in the US and Europe because it is an always-on fast connection to the Internet, at an affordable price. No details are available yet.
Happy happy
Finally, November 15 was the 30th anniversary of the little piece of electronic wizardry that has made all this possible: the processor. The first chip, in what is now a multi-billion dollar industry, was made by Intel for a Japanese calculator manufacturer and would eventually find its way into the first personal computer by IBM which celebrated its 20th birthday a few months ago.
The 1971 Intel 4044 microprocessor had 2 300 transistors on an area smaller than a fingernail and equalled the computing power of the ENIAC, the first electronic computer, which in 1946 filled an entire room. Intel’s StrongArm chips are in most handhelds, with several orders of magnitude more processing power and on devices about the same size as those Japanese calculators.
What a week. In politics, only the break-up of the opposition alliance and the tabling of the arms deal probe can compare.